The 19 Best Thigh-High Slit Dresses in Cannes Red Carpet History
Something about Cannes makes everyone want to show a little leg
Reported by Harper's Bazaar.
The thigh-high slit has never really left Cannes — it just keeps finding new reasons to stay. According to Harper's Bazaar, nearly two decades of red carpet history confirm that this particular cut operates less like a trend and more like a dress code unto itself, one that the festival's most commanding women return to again and again.
The archival evidence is almost absurdly good. Angelina Jolie in Versace in 2009. Blake Lively in Gucci Première in 2014. Charlize Theron, Rachel Weisz in Valentino, Freida Pinto in Atelier Versace — each appearance a case study in how a single seam can shift a silhouette from formal to feral. The slit, done right, isn't provocative so much as it is precise. It's the difference between dressing for the room and owning it.
The Houses That Keep Showing Up
Bella Hadid has made the format nearly her personal signature, appearing in Alexandre Vauthier in 2016, Roberto Cavalli in 2019, and Saint Laurent in 2025 — three very different interpretations of the same essential power move. Versace and Saint Laurent are the unofficial repeat offenders across the full list, which tracks: both houses have always understood that women at Cannes aren't dressing to blend into the Palais, they're dressing to be remembered on the steps. Rihanna's 2025 Alaïa moment and Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu's Saint Laurent the same year proved the look hasn't calcified into nostalgia — it's still the sharpest tool in the formal arsenal.
What's interesting is how rarely these looks feel like they're trying. Demi Moore in Celine at Cannes 2024 and Isabelle Huppert in Balenciaga the same year brought an almost architectural restraint to the cut — proof that the slit doesn't require maximalism to land. And going back to Liu Wen in Saint Laurent in 2014 or Liya Kebede in Haider Ackermann in 2016, the throughline isn't sex appeal in any simple sense. It's confidence made structural, translated directly into fabric.
The thigh-high slit endures at Cannes not because it's daring but because — worn by the right woman with the right intention — it remains one of fashion's most efficient statements.
Read the original at Harper's Bazaar.
